10 ECOLES DE BIJOUTERIE POUR UNE COLLECTION DE BIJOUX CONTEMPORAINS !

For our project we visited the Silver Museum in Antwerp, which has a large collection and a silversmith workshop at its disposal. The museum is located in castle Sterckshof, a house with many rooms and lots of space for silver. The silver collection covers a vast period of time from the 16th century until nowadays and is thematically organized with an emphasis on the techniques, brands, style and use of the objects in their original context. Thierry Decruyenaere, who teaches at our school, guided the students not only at school but also in the Sterckshof’s workshop. There the museum organizes silversmith classes for small groups, up to 6 attendants in order to optimize the work conditions.This was a very educational experience for our students.

Belgium – Namur – IATA. Institut des Arts, Techniques et Artisanats.

In June, we met the jewelry and the general courses teachers to present them the theme “tell me a jewel” and to answer their questions. We explained to them that to create their jewels, the students had to draw inspiration from ancient craft techniques from their countries. For us it would be goldsmith and more particularly “dinanderie”. We also encouraged them to organize visits and trips for their students to nourish their inspiration and make them discover other techniques… In September, we met our jewelry students. We presented the PLE, the newspaper “Le Mur” and the new Comenius Project. We also told them about the calendar of events… On 29 October, a jewelry teacher organized a visit with his students in the museum of ancient arts in Namur, where they had the opportunity to admire beautiful goldsmith and “dinanderie” pieces, particularly those from the treasure of Hugo Oignies… On 2 December, the coordinators of the project met a craftsman who creates contemporary goldsmith. His name is Eric Seidoff. He is a former student from our school, where he mainly studied the fine arts. But he also spent some time in the departments of cabinetmaking and jewelry. For his creations and his jewels, he often uses semi-precious metals (copper, brass…) and also wood. We admired the nice collection of goldsmith tools in his workshop… In January, our students will visit Eric’s workshop, watch him work and listen to his explanations about his work. In February, Eric will come and watch our students work during their creation classes and will give them advice… And of course our students have been working on the creation and realization of their jewels since September… In February, we will host the Comenius exhibition in Namur from 10th to the end of the month in the “Espace Wallonie de Namur”.

Czech republic – Turnov – SUPS. Střední Uměleckoprůmyslová Škola

Students from the Czech jewelery school of Turnov worked in relation with the Bohemian Paradise Geopark, localised 80 kilometers from Prague. They discovered and learned to work with the traditional techniques of garnets stones cutting and setting.

In the class of Jewellery Design the theme of the project « Tell me a Jewel » was given and the students were asked to use the « filigree » technique. According to the idea, our students would « say » (narrate) a short story through their jewel and present it in one -two pages in the form of a card.On October 12th we visited the Archaeological Museum of Volos and we admired extra -ordinary samples of the technique from the Hellenistic Period (1st – 3rd century B.C.), that were made in our area. On October 15th a seminar for the filigree technique was carried out by a well -known craftsman of our area. A pleasant surprise for us was the fashion design exhibition of a Roumanian artist, which we watched with the students on October! There were special works made with the filigree technique !! On October the 25th the students’ designs were completed. Their making started in the workshops of DIEK immediately.

Italy – Valenza – ISA Cellini. Istituto d’Arte Benvenuto Cellini

The “Benvenuto Cellini “ High School, in Valenza, has decided to propose the following processes of goldsmith’s production. The word chiselling refers to the techniques used to remove material, usually metal with the strokes of a hammer, without the use of heat. This art is very old : it was born during the Bronze Age, 3000 years before Christ to decorate especially weapons, it was already practised as refined art by the Egyptians, the Cretans, the Greeks and the Romans. Artists such as Cellini, Botticelli, Pollaiolo, Ghiberti produced excellent pieces of art for Italian Renaissance jewellery… With the term “ engraving” we refer to the creation of an indelible drawing on a material, obtained thanks to tools suitable for removing parts of the bearing itself. It can be realized using different materials, but jewellery is concerned chiefly with the engraving obtained on metals or semi precious and precious stones. In goldsmith’s art engraving is carried out with steel tools, called gravers. Ancient people engraved only crystals or stones, during the Renaissance also metals started to be engraved… At first, our students gathered historical and technological information about the techniques, then they designed objects… All the students of the art school and the first form of the artistic lyceum have taken part in this phase. They were assigned a common theme, which was aimed at the creation of objects and jewels inspired by fossils. Some drawings have been chosen which are now being made into objects that will be shown in the Travelling Exhibition.

Latvia – Liepaja – LMV. Liepājas Mākslas Vidusskola

Decorated with traditional techniques… As raw materials using traditional techniques, we were looking for Latvian archaeological materials in jewelry. As a reference for studying literature and original archaeological jewelry and made there of. Analyzing the reference material we came to the conclusion that one of the unifying elements of the ornaments are signs and symbols. Most of the jewelry was the case or forged. How we view ourselves set a study of ornamentation and sign making techniques. Signs and decorated with ornaments can be divided into : the plate and ornaments in a positive, the plate and ornaments in negative, the plate and ornaments in silhouette… Sign making techniques : Marks cutting, sawing, Marks Forging… Jewelry design, composition work in three directions : Jewelry for the initiative back to the traditional sources, archaeological jewelry, using traditional techniques, and jewelry for a source of inspiration is free, but using traditional techniques.

Portugal – Lisboa – ESAA. Escola Secundaria Antonio Arroio

The project «Raconte-moi un bijou», developed under the Comenius – Multilateral Partnerships programme shows the creative universe and the technical and artistical work of the students of the Artistic Production Course in the Jewelry specialization at the Escola Secundária Artística António Arroio. The source of the Project of design and production of contemporary jewels/objects came into being by mingling the allegory from Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince and the traditional techniques of the Portuguese Jewelry. The work of discovery and learning about gold filigree developed from lectures and research on collections of jewelry in different contexts on museums and workshops, such as: National Museum of Archaeology of Lisbon, National Museum of Ancient Art of Lisbon, galleries and workshops of contemporary Jewellery in Lisbon ; Travassos Gold Museum; workshops of artisans in Travassos. The work process was developed in liaison and partnership between teachers and students of Escola António Arroio and professionals in the Gold Museum of Travassos and regional companies. The collection of objects / jewelry (brooches and pendants for hand and body), which integrates the first travelling Comenius exhibition in the ten partner schools, reveals the dominant presence of traditional techniques such as filigree and the silver in combination with other materials: acrylic, textiles, glass, mirror, silicone, aluminum, nylon, paper, Led, water, Bay leaves, dried flower, stones, and recycled. To all who made this project possible by their participation and full support, our grateful recognition.

Portugal – Porto – ESSR. Escola Secundaria Soares Dos Reis

Under the theme “raconte-moi un bijou”, 45 students and 8 teachers from the 4 courses of EASR school namely: Product Design course – specialization jewellery, Artistic Production course – specialization jewellery, EFA – jewellery and setting stones, and professional course of jewellery have developed a work of reinterpreting of “lavradinho” and “caseado” techniques, joined these traditional practices with new emerging areas of cultural and artistic production, asserting itself aesthetically and socially on new fields in the education sector of contemporary jewelry. The proposal presented to students was to build pieces of jewelry, using as references the main traditional techniques of working metals, as fundamental methodology in the area of design and artistic production. Our school organized training periods and Workshops with the referred techniques. Based on the revitalization strategy defined, the project aims to provide students from jewelry area, know-how enabling them to reach new approaches, both in technical and aesthetic quality of their products, as well as in the design of an innovative perspective of complementing both conceptions. The “artistic creation » and recognition of the role of « innovation » criteria, have played an important role in this project, allowing the flexibility between the boundaries of traditional and contemporary.

Spain – Madrid – Escuela de Arte n°3

The School of Arts 3 in Madrid has given the Comenius Project “Tell Me a Jewel” the category of an Educational Project involving the 3 main specialities : Artistic Jewellery, Silversmith and Artistic Enamelling. The School has chosen the following traditional Spanish techniques : Enamel, Filigree, and Damascen work. During the first part we showed these techniques to both Professors and Students through different Seminars with D.Luís Mendez “La Filigrana” and D.Félix Valle “Damasquinado”. Students from the 1st year of Jewellery are already preparing a work on ‘Popular Jewellery’. On the other hand, Students from 1st year of Enamelling are working with Champlevé enamelling. All these works are coordinated with Artistic Drawing, History of Art, and Project Components in order to design filigrana pieces and enamels. Also included an interesting visit to the National Archaeological Museum… Students from the 2nd year of Jewellery, Silversmith and Enamel are working in‘ Fashion & Jewellery using the filigrana – enamel techniques’ with the goal of designing contemporary jewels. All the designed pieces are made at our workshop. Also included a visit to the National Costume Museum, and to the Istituto Italiano de Cultura… Last November 2010 our school hosted a group of teachers and students from the School St.Amant Montrond.There was a workshop in fire-enamelling, an archaelogical trip to Somosierra was completed by all the Students, Spanish and French, and another trip took us to Toledo to visit a damasquinado workshop, visiting the Toledo Cathedral and the Saint Cross Museum.

France – Saint-Amand Md – LPJG. Lycée Professionnel Jean Guéhenno

In the beginning of this first school year, the 60 students from the 2nd year jewelry began the Comenius project with a meeting with two craftsmen who came to the school to explain two traditional techniques to work with volcanic stones. Eric Buffel, a stone cutter explained how to cut and to prepare a volcanic stone before enameling. Maria da Costa, an enameller showed to the team how to add enamel on the stone, to create a jewel… Few days after, all the students went for a mineralogical trip in Volvic, a small city in Auvergne. They could visit the carrier Mallet, a special volcanic stones carrier and learnt a lot of information about history and economy of the Volvic stones in the museum… When the 60 students came back to school, they began to work artistic matters, technical design and technical courses about the realization of a jewel with enameling on volcanic stones, with the help of the two craftsmen. In the same time, in sciences, mathematics, French and English languages and history, they worked about road books for the project and for the report which will be written in the student newspaper Le Mur… 15 jewels were chosen by all the team to be presented in the first Comenius travelling exhibition in January in Saint-Amand, and in other countries after. All the other items will be also presented in the Gold City Museum next February.